Michael Flood

Michael died on July 4th and his funeral service on
Wednesday, July 13th saw East Harling Church packed with the
many friends he had made throughout an active life.

Michael was always, since he was a boy, fascinated by
autocycles. He joined the NACC
early in 1988 and soon became involved with the running of the
club, becoming the club's New Hudson marque specialist in January
1990 = a position he kept for 16 years. He organised
several events, the Breckland Forest Run in July 1991 being the
first.

He will be best remembered from the time he spent as the
club's Chairman. Michael was elected as chairman at the
1991 AGM, being 'thrown in at the deep end' as he hadn't been on
the club committee until then. Nevertheless, Michael had
quite firm ideas as to what the chairman should do. He saw
the prime duty of the job as getting 'out and about' as much as
he could: meeting and talking to - and listening to - as many
club members as possible. A look through copies of
Buzzing from this period will see Michael's name appearing
among the list of riders at events up and down the country.
He is fondly remembered from this period by many club members and
was unequalled in the role of Chairman - before or since.

He was a tireless worker for the club - most members will be
unaware that he was a regular member of the 'stuffing crew' who,
every other month, spent an entire evening putting magazines in
envelopes, labelling and stamping them ready top go in the
post.

Michael was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 1994.
Because of the progressive nature of the disease, this meant that
Michael had to gradually reduce his involvement with the club,
from standing down as Chairman in 1996 to relinquishing his
position as New Hudson ME at the start
of 2006.

However, the main thing we will remember Michael for is his
love of autocycles. Michael and his autocycles appeared in
The Classic Motor Cycle magazine several times and he rode
autocycles at many club events. As the years have gone by,
the types of machines on club runs have changed, but autocycles
still appear as often - maybe more often - as ever. This
continued popularity of autocycle in the club is due in no small
part to Michael's quiet 'championing' of their cause.